HE'S BACK, AND HE'S TACKING RIGHT FOR CAMPAIGN '96. BUT FIRST YELTSIN FACES ANOTHER HOSTAGE CRISIS

SELDOM DURING HIS ALMOST FIVE years in power had Boris Yeltsin appeared more in charge. As cameras rolled in a Kremlin conference room, the glowering Russian President pounded the table and delivered a furious dressing down to a row of hangdog officers. "What am I to make of you generals?" he barked. "Are you playing games? What have you been doing instead of erecting barriers, strengthening your forces and stopping the rebels?" The generals--Defense Minister Pavel Grachev; Interior Minister Anatoli Kulikov; Andrei Nikolayev, the commander of the Border Guards; and Security Chief Mikhail Barsukov--sat in chastened silence, heads lowered, avoiding eye...